On November 12, 1997, jury selection began in the United States in the trial of Theodore John Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber. The trial was one of the most anticipated federal cases in the country because of the 17-year campaign involving letters and bomb packages.
Kaczynski was charged with 16 attacks carried out between 1978 and 1995. Three people were killed and 23 were injured. His targets included professors, computer specialists, universities, and representatives of airlines and industry.
The FBI designated the investigation “UNABOM” — an abbreviation of University and Airline Bombing, or “bombing attacks against universities and airlines.” The nickname “Unabomber” was also derived from this designation.
The arrest after the manifesto
Kaczynski was arrested on April 3, 1996, at his remote cabin near Lincoln, Montana. Investigators were led to him after the publication of his lengthy text about modern society and technology. His brother David and sister-in-law Linda recognized similarities between the language of the text and Kaczynski’s earlier writings and alerted the FBI.
A search of the cabin uncovered components for making explosive devices, tens of thousands of pages of handwritten notes, and a bomb ready to be mailed. The FBI said that the attacks had claimed the lives of three Americans and injured nearly two dozen others. In court documents and media reports, the number of injured people was cited as both 23 and 24, depending on how the victims were counted.
The trial ends with a guilty plea
Jury selection began on November 12, 1997, and the following day the case entered its substantive phase. Kaczynski, however, did not hear the opening arguments. On January 22, 1998, he pleaded guilty to 13 federal charges related to five of the attacks and accepted a plea agreement that spared him the death penalty.
“The Unabomber’s career is over,” lead federal prosecutor Robert Cleary said after the guilty plea. Under the agreement, Kaczynski was to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of release.
On May 4, 1998, a federal court in Sacramento sentenced him to four life terms without the possibility of parole, as well as an additional 30 years in prison. Judge Garland Burrell described his crimes as “indescribable and monstrous,” while the victims and their relatives spoke about the lasting consequences of the attacks.
Theodore Kaczynski remained in the federal prison system until his death on June 10, 2023. He died at the age of 81 at a prison medical center in North Carolina.
Sources: washingtonpost.com, apnews.com